1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a driving apparatus provided with an operating portion configured to be reciprocated by a stepping motor which rotates in the forward and reverse directions, a printing apparatus having a driving apparatus, and a method of controlling the driving apparatus.
2. Related Art
In the related art, a configuration including a driving motor, a cutter blade (operating portion) configured to slide upward and downward using the driving motor as a drive source, a cutter activation mechanism having a rotating disk which constitutes a crank mechanism, and configured to convert a rotational power of the driving motor in one direction into a reciprocal motion and transmit the reciprocal motion to the cutter blade by a 360-degree rotation of the rotating disk when receiving an input of a rotational power of the driving motor, and a cutter home position detector configured to detect a cutting operation starting position (upward movement starting position) and a cutting operation ending position (downward movement ending position), which corresponds to a cutter home position, of the cutter blade, in which a cutting operation is determined to be abnormal when the end of the cutting operation of the cutter blade is not sensed by the detection of the cutter home position within a predetermined period after the start of the cutting operation of the cutter blade is known (see JP-A-2002-103711).
In other words, since the driving apparatus of the related art has a configuration in which the cutter blade slides upward and downward by the 360-degree rotation of the rotating disk, if the cutter blade stops in the course of the cutting operation because a object to be cut is an object which cannot be cut by the cutter blade or because a gear train which constitutes the cutter activation mechanism is abnormal, the rotating disk cannot rotate anymore correspondingly, and hence the cutter blade cannot return to the cutter home position. Consequently, whether or not the cutting operation is abnormal is determined by determining whether or not the cutter blade returns to the cutter home position within the predetermined period.
In such a driving apparatus, as a configuration to make the operating portion to reciprocate, a configuration in which a stepping motor is used as a drive source and the operating portion reciprocates corresponding to forward and reverse rotations of the stepping motor is contemplated. However, in this case, abnormality of operation of the operating portion may not be detected only by the determination of whether or not the operating portion has returned to the home position within the predetermined period like the related art described above.
In other words, even when the operating portion stops in the course of an outward movement and hence does not reach the outward movement ending position, the operating portion may be allowed to make a homeward movement when the stepping motor rotates in the reverse direction for the homeward movement. In such a case, the operating portion stops moving in the course of the outward movement, and the amount of movement (returning amount) in the homeward movement of the operating portion is reduced correspondingly. Therefore, the time required for the operating portion to return to the home position is shorter than the time required at the time of a normal operation, so that the operating portion is returned back to the home position within the predetermined period. Therefore, the abnormality of the operation cannot be detected even though the reciprocal motion of the operating portion is not performed normally.